Thursday, February 11, 2016

Serial podcast and Adnan Syed

I listen to a lot of podcasts, and lately I've been expanding my repertoire. Thought I would share some of what I am listening to.

I'm inspired to do so as a result of my fascination arising out of the podcast Serial.

Serial host Sarah Koenig and her team won a
Peabody Award for the program

I only came across the Serial podcast a month or two ago, and it's interesting to see what it has lead to. I'm late to the story, as Serial broke records in 2014 as the fastest podcast ever to reach 5 million downloads on iTunes.

In a nutshell, Serial is a podcast that examines real life cases, largely defined by the focus of Season 1, the case of Adnan Syed who was convicted in the 1999 murder of Baltimore high school student Hae Min Lee.

I haven't even listened to Season 2 of Serial yet, as there is so much surrounding content in the form of podcasts about the Serial podcast, and developments in Adnan Syed's case, some as recent as this week. It's fascinating, as it's a story with no clear end, no clear answers, just a lot of conflicting and confusing information, and a seemingly obvious miscarriage of justice.

The Innocence Project is now involved, there have been new hearings with witnesses who were passed over initially, missing evidence, and more. I can even see that there is new news this week about a hearing for a new trial (the judge is considering his decision)... (I'm fighting the temptation to delve into the latest, or to continue listening to the evidence...).